Phoenix is one of the hottest places in the United States. Phoenix is the capital of Arizona and is part of a multi-city metropolitan area including Glendale, Tempe, and Scottsdale called the Valley of the Sun.
The City of Phoenix has a population of 1,608,000 making it the fifth most populous city in the United States. The Phoenix metropolitan area has a population of 4.85 million.
Some popular attractions include the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix Art Museum, the Phoenix Zoo, Camelback Mountain, Papago Park, and the Arizona Science Center.
The Echo Canyon Trail on Camelback Mountain is a very popular outdoor recreation spot for people in the Phoenix area, but the old trailhead was not capable of meeting the community’s needs and population increase that the Phoenix area has seen.
The City of Phoenix funded a renovation of the trail that included adding a restroom, pavilion, and gate house to the trailhead and making significant trail improvements.
One aspect of the project was to reroute portions of the trail and to repair other sections. The project also included construction to more than double the available parking at the site and provide better facilities for hikers. A major portion of improving the facilities included adding three structures that were provided by Romtec.
The trailhead portion of the project required a new permanent restroom facility and a matching pavilion which created a common visual theme.
The parking lot renovation required a gatehouse building to monitor parking and enforce the park rules. The City of Phoenix had a clear design preference for these structures that included curved steel roofs and a brown desert color scheme that was matched on all three structures.
The privacy walls on the restroom building have steel posts and use corrugated steel for the paneling. This building also has two drinking fountains to provide more sources of drinking water to the hikers.
The pavilion matches the restroom with beige steel posts and corrugated steel roofing that is painted with a weathered copper color. The roof of the pavilion has a similar contour to the restroom and both structures sit side by side. The pavilion offers hikers shaded benches for cooling down and recuperating after hiking the Echo Canyon Trail at Camelback Mountain.
The gatehouse features a sliding window and counter that allows park employees to speak with visitors about parking availability and other park topics. Air conditioning is also included in this building to make it more comfortable for the staff.
The overall design aesthetic was provided by the City of Phoenix and Romtec delivered three buildings that serve various purposes, but all match the same desert color scheme that the city desired.
Romtec is proud to have been part of the renovations of the trails and trailhead at Echo Canyon Trail that leads up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. This project shows the capabilities of Romtec to design multiple buildings that match a specific aesthetic theme, while also providing a multi building project that included a restroom building, pavilion, and gatehouse.